Menu

Bear Aware

It is spring time. Working in the middle of nowhere brings a new hazard: bears.

We recently received the first round of “bear awareness” training.

Pretty much gets summed up like this:

If it’s brown, lie down.

If it’s black, fight back.

“brown” refers to the great grizzly. Apparently, being at the top of the food chain they don’t know fear. You fight, you lose. You’re only hope for escape lies with the “fact” that they don’t eat people.

“black” refers to the smaller black bear. In some cases it is possible to scare the bear away before things escalate.

I really hope I don’t ever have to apply this knowledge. Bears are born knowing “If it’s Jim, you win”.